FDS Viewer

A browser-based 3D previewer for Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) input files. Drop in any .fds file and inspect meshes, obstructions, vents, holes, devices, slice planes, fire sources and HVAC networks before launching a multi-hour FDS simulation - catching geometry errors in seconds instead of after a failed run.

Project Lead: Prof Rino Lovreglio, PhD - Massey University

Disclaimer: No responsibility is taken for the use or output of this tool. All results must be independently verified by a qualified fire engineer before use in any design or regulatory context.

---

Features

Pure client-side - no installation, no build step, no backend. Parses FDS namelist input (&MESH, &OBST, &VENT, &HOLE, &DEVC, &INIT, &GEOM, &HVAC, &ZONE, &SLCF, &SURF, &REAC, &MATL, ...).

Four pages: 3D Geometry (interactive Three.js scene with layer toggles, opacity, canonical camera views and click-to-inspect), Mesh (resolution, cell count, parallel-MPI breakdown), Fire & Combustion (burner HRR, reaction chemistry, materials), and FDS Code (full source with syntax highlighting).

Light & dark theme. Drag-and-drop or "Open File" - multiple files can be loaded in the same session. Keyboard shortcuts: W A S D move, Q E up/down, arrows rotate, 1-6 canonical views, 0 iso, R reset.

Download

Download the latest release zip - a clean zip with no git history (recommended). All releases with per-version download counts are listed at https://github.com/ProfRino/fds-viewer/releases. To follow development: git clone https://github.com/ProfRino/fds-viewer.git

Listed on the official FDS Third-Party Tools wiki - maintained by the FDS development community (firemodels/fds, NIST).

Quick start

Option A - Just open the file (no server, any OS)

1. Download the latest release zip and unzip it (or clone the repo).
2. Double-click index.html - it opens in your default browser.
3. Click Load Sample, drop any .fds file on the page, or use Open File. Done.

The bundled sample is embedded directly in the page, so it works offline straight from file://. The only network call is to the Three.js CDN (first load only - caches afterwards).

Option B - Online (GitHub Pages)

Use the live URL - no download needed, handy for sharing with colleagues: https://profrino.github.io/fds-viewer/

You can also auto-load a bundled example via the ?file= parameter: https://profrino.github.io/fds-viewer/?file=examples/sample_room_fire.fds

Option C - Local server (only needed for ?file= URL params)

The ?file= URL parameter uses fetch(), which browsers block on file:// URLs. If you want to use that feature locally, run the included server: on Windows double-click serve.bat (requires Python 3 on PATH), or on any OS run python -m http.server 8765 from the repo root and open http://localhost:8765/.

For normal use (drag-drop, Open File, Load Sample) you do not need this - Option A is enough.

URL parameters

Parameter	Effect
?file=<path>	Auto-load a .fds file at server-relative <path>. Requires GitHub Pages or a local server (Option B or C). Example: ?file=examples/sample_room_fire.fds

Bundled examples

examples/ contains nine .fds files demonstrating different FDS feature sets (geometry primitives, terrain, extruded polygons, HVAC, fans, sphere intersections, and a sample room-fire scenario). They are convenient sanity inputs for the viewer - they are not intended as validated design fires.

Repository layout

.
├── index.html          Application shell
├── css/style.css       Styles (light & dark themes)
├── js/
│   ├── app.js          Wiring, event handling, theme, URL params
│   ├── fds-parser.js   Namelist parser
│   ├── viewer.js       Three.js scene
│   ├── mesh-panel.js   Mesh / parallel panel
│   ├── fire-panel.js   Fire & combustion panel
│   └── sample-data.js  Embedded sample (for offline Load Sample)
├── examples/*.fds      Sample inputs (also editable on disk)
├── serve.bat           Optional local server (only for ?file= URL params)
└── README.md

Dependencies

Three.js r128 is loaded from a public CDN - there is no package manager and no node_modules. To work fully offline, download three.min.js and OrbitControls.js and replace the two <script src="https://..."> lines near the bottom of index.html with local paths.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.

Recognition

Listed on the official FDS Third-Party Tools wiki maintained by the FDS development community (firemodels/fds, NIST).

Citation

If you use this tool in published work, please cite:

Lovreglio, R. FDS Viewer. Massey University. https://github.com/ProfRino/fds-viewer